Brevil looked with a maddening intensity at the fatebringer. His eyes were wide and raving, sanity seemingly forgotten. Grabbing him by the shoulders, he brought his face closer to the bleeding boy besides him:

"Thought the fuel was your idea? But yes, I do."It took concious effort not to flick out his lighter. As an afterthought, he extended the retrofitted bayonet on the end of the shotgun. If he fired it, like as not it could ignite the fuel. He'd rather do that in a planned way.

"To be honest, I am very tempted to have the whole of Cancer's place go up in flames" Ceres spoke, the recklessly murdered people still before her eyes. "Let's head in. I think the rat will behiding below the place, as rats most often do."

<OOC>Roll Idea about where tripwires and similiar traps could be placed</OOC>

Carefully, the tall mulatto pried the lock guarding the back entrance open with her massive blade, proceeding slowly as to avoid a noise that might give them away to the unwholesome occupant of the reeking depot.

"And no, Riv, talking is no longer a priority."

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

They had to put cloth to their mouth to avoid gagging for the smell was intense. The wind picked up in intensity and distant sounds were heard: A woman crying and an engine running. Focusing on the matter at hand, for Cancer might be close, Riv and Ceres entered the hut once they had made sure there were no traps.

They entered a living room, or what had once been a living room, but now crushed glass and broken bowls lay scattered on the floor and close to the walls strange, deformed "heaps" had been covered with blankets and carpets, and soaked in gasoline, emptied jerry cans thrown on the floor. A door led into another room and a hatch in the floor led down into the basement, from where the distant sounds of a running engine could be heard.

<OOC> Spot hidden and idea rolls succeeded and no traps were found </OOC>

Carefully removing one of the blankets, suspecting what was beneath, Riv was not surprised as the toe of a little boy came into sight. Removing more revealed that eight persons lay beneath - two adults and six children and youngsters. Everyone had slit throats, except a teenager girl and what must have been her mother. They had been bleeding from the groins and had been stabbed multiple times in each eye. Every corpse had been stripped nude and Ceres noted that the living room had been stripped empty of valuables.

This man is a grotesque murderer, a robber and a rapist

Riv and Ceres thought the same thoughts, a sudden gloom descending upon them. While Riv was murderous he had never witnessed such cruelty in person, though he had surely heard stories - particularly about an infamous murder rapist called "Don from Corona".

Kiph was hissing more than speaking, as his colorless, lunatic eyes sought Brevil's, trying to match the doctor's own intense, burning gaze. Strangely, Kiph did not resist Brevil's sudden "assault", rather he allowed himself to be manhandled. Between his muscle-relaxed state and his shock at the doctor's sudden madness, Kiph found himself unable to move, his nerve endings frozen in panic.

Ah, how I have come to love that sense of accomplishment and victory that I get when I pull the wool over the eyes of a clever player character. What DM Triumphs have you had?

Some of mine:1. Finally killing an incredibly powerful, lucky, annoying player's character.2. Finally achieving a TPK (Total Party Kill)3. Finally achieving a TPK using only traps4. Finally working out how to make it so that d**n wizard doesn't steal the spotlight all the d**n time.

Ceres was puzzled, to say the least, as Riv slipped under one of the blankets covering the corpses.

What the hell is he doing?

Then it dawned on her and she began moving towards the door. A cold voice sounded from behind and she turned just in time to see Cancer, his head now shaved bald, entering the room. The scarred and pockmarked man sneered as he lifted his compact gun, aiming at Ceres.

"Imagine that I would get visitors today! You should have told me, I could have baked something!", his voice was cold.

Then the shooting began.

Riv peeked out from behind cover in time to see Cancer emptying his magazine, Ceres desperately trying to get away. She was not fast enough, though she managed to get mostly out of the way. The rounds hammered into the tin roofing wall and wooden door sill, then hit her in the back - punching through armour, creating a dozen minute holes.

Her horrible scream was cut short as she was thrown off her feet, face down into the sand and dust outside the fuel depot.

"I'd @!#$ you if you weren't so ugly, dear!", Cancer said, putting his gun on down on the table by the doorway. Picking up a butchers knife from a drawer he laughed. "But you don't have to worry. I still got something for you, sweetie!"

<OOC>Riv reacted quickly and was able to hide under the carpets, Cancers eyes falling on the fleeing Ceres. Cancer surprised the party and won initiative, though now Riv can react. Ceres is down for the fight having suffered severe trauma. She managed a partial success in her dodge and only half the bullets hit. Furthermore half again hit the wall so only 12 bullets hit her chest plage, which withstood some of the damage. Ceres is not dead, but she is seconds from death.</OOC>

<ooc>Riv will launch himself at Cancer, using his bayonet like a lance (hopefully, using his mass he will breach buddies shield.) And once the bayonet makes contact, he will fire the shotgun, unworried about damage to the bayonet or weapon.</ooc>

Lungs punctured, blood pouring out of nostrils and mouth, Ceres struggled to make sense of it all. Her vision was blurry and she tried to claw her way to safety, to Kiph, however mad that sounded. It did not matter now; she had to get somewhere safe. It was all she could think about.

Riv lunged silently, fiercly, his shotgun mounted bayonet in front like a spear. He hit Cancer, but was stopped an inch from Cancer's back, just below the neck, a jolt suddenly tearing through his body, creases of blue fire erupting along the surface of some hitherto unseen shield, melting the tip of the bayonet as Riv pushed ever deeper.

"Curses! You mother@!#$ing double dealing son of a pig!" Cancer screamed as he twisted about, the bayonet scraping the surface of the shield like a shark's fin, creating ripples of blue fire as it did so. The butcher's knife swung in a silvery arc, aiming for Riv's face, as Riv pulled the trigger, a silent explosion of blue triggering simultanously with the thunder of gunfire.

Ceres could see her now, aunt Red May, opening her arms in a gesture of welcome. And there was her grandfather too, lifting his powerful arm to strike at the glowing steel once more.

Cancer was thrown out the doorway, his body spinning, then bouncing as he hit the ground behind Ceres. Cancer screamed horribly, a gaping wound in his back. He was still alive, somehow, miraculously, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

Riv had lost the shotgun, it was now on the floor between his legs, as he held both arms against the wooden door frame, vomiting intensly, the contents of his stomach escaping through mouth and nostril alike. As he fired the shotgun an intense jolt had torn through his body, and on reflex he emptied his stomach on Ceres' legs.

The echo of the shots resembled nothing more than the beat of waves against a steep sea shore - even though she never been to one, Ceres knew it had to sound somehow like this. Resonant, distorted, everpresent, all-encompassing. 'Lame to die this way, girl' she thought as she struggled to reach one of her nanite packs. 'd**n these huge hands of mine, so heavy and clumsy' she thought even as time flowed like honey.

Mai-Ling spoke to her, calling, beckoning, but Ceres did not wish to leave, not yet. All before seemed to be in vain, pointless. 'Have you trudged through vasteland only to rot in a forgotten hole?' She had to give it sense. To learn. To become wise. To help. Ones such as Mai-Ling. Even though she never saw her face.

"Finish the bastard" Ceres spoke through blood and pain. Hopefully, Riv would listen.

Those distant hands of hers, so far away as to seem to belong to somebody else, almost did not feel what they ran across, yet she hoped they would find her sole hope.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

"He'll keep for a second. Just hold on", said Riv as he Quicly searched through Ceres' pack while fighting the nausea - he knew she was a healer and hoped that she had... Ah, there it was.

He took the nanite injector and jammed it into her thigh, hoping the magic little critters would do their stuff. Otherwise she was beyound the help of anything less then a trauma unit, and it was unlikely something like that could be found here.

Riv got up, the best he could do done, picked up his shotgun and moved over to the writhing Cancer.

Without preable, he put the damaged shotgun to Cancer's head and fired. Twice.

<ooc - nothing Cancer says will stop the triggers from being pulled... >

Cancer never saw what was coming, for his eyed had rolled back in his head and only the whites showed. He was shaking uncontrollably as Riv fired, reducing much of his face to moist pulp. The second blast reduced what was left, leaving only shred pieces of meat and bone above the neck. The shield did not seem to offer any protection anymore.

Ceres coughed, spat and cursed as she freed her lungs of blood, the nanites working their magic. She could even feel the bullets being pushed out of her body, a truly alien experience, and winced as the first one plopped out, clinging against her chest plate as it did so. Only minutes later would she trace her fingers over the entry area, not even feeling a single scar from her frightening experience. A total of 8 bullets had penetrated the armour, three of them inflicting major damage. The nanites were life savers, but her supply was dwindling fast.

"I guess that was an Invasive procedure." quipped Riv. Looking over and seeing Ceres seemed in much better shape, he sighed and then carefully began searching the dead manic. Ever paranoid, he watched out for booby traps. People like this took no end of trouble to protect themselves from theft - even his wallet or coin pouch might contain a hidden needle.

And of course, he was listening carefully. As unlikely as it might be, Cancer might have had friends.

Sitting up, Ceres looked around in the charnelhouse that was Cancer's hideout."Next time, I will know better and stand just behind the door" she commented. "Thank you Riv - for giving me the chance to have any 'next times'... I would kiss you if, a) I was any good at it, b) I was your type and c) I was certain that Kiph would not somehow find out and stab us both in the back soon thereafter."

Spitting out a little blood, she stood again, feeling a draft where her plate was riddled with holes. "You search the maniac, I will look around for anyone who might have survived, or any chance to learn whether this bastard operated alone."

"You know, it is kind of too bad I destroyed his head - it might have been worth something to someone", said Riv wistfully as he checked over the headless corpse. "No prob. If yah had gotten killed, I'd have a hard time explaining that to Kiph. Again." Riv grinned.

<ooc> - Add to list. Toarch the d**n place when we are clear...Loot, Pillage and THEN burn. Remember that Riv! It's important...<ooc>

- A steel belt with joints every tenth centimeter. AT-Reid-5 is engraved into a flip panel that reveals a touchpad and a small screen. Further studies also reveal small replaceable batteries. The power gauge indicates the batteries are flat.- A steel ring on each hand, AT-Reid-5 engraved on the inside of each ring.- Steel bracers on each hand. Yep: AT-Reid-5.- Steel, leather and kevlar ankle bracers. AT-Reid-5.- Brown webbing pouch containing 103 severed ears with name tags on.- Left leather combat glove (+2 fist damage)- 3 x P90 magazine clips, with 50 rounds each (magnetically attached to the steel belt).Also, inside the brain and skull pulp are two torn and twisted steel ear rings.

(Plus P90 and combat knife inside the building)

While Riv looted the dead Cancer, Ceres examined the fuel depot. Beside the dead family she found four ladies of the night, heavily mutilated and abused. Each and every one was dead, the last one still warm. The mutant doctor had never witnessed such wanton murder. The late cancer seemed particularly fond of abusing women.

Ceres quietly climbed down the hatch, following a ladder that led into a pre-war garage basement. A black pick-up had been filled with jerry cans and the engine was still running. The garage was filled with tools and spare tires, as well as emptied jerry cans. There could be no mistake; Cancer was planning to leave with a bang. The explosion would blow up the neighbourhood.

The pick up was luxuriously decorated, with black leather seats and crimson velvet interior. Furry dice hang from the rearview mirror. In a bag in the passenger seat was stuff Cancer had stolen from his victims: